Bob Ford's Video Blog

Radipole Lake RSPB Reserve
Wednesday April 20th 2016

The third warbler species I have been lucky enough to film this week is chiffchaff.

This bird looks abnormally pale but that is just the strong early-morning light.
This next bird was filmed in better conditions.
It's only a very short clip but it does show better the typical colouration of a chiffchaff.

When the chiffchaffs first arrive in March they have to feed on the ground as there are presumably no insects in the trees yet.
Last year when this happened the media was full of reports of "starving migrant birds" too weak to fly up into the trees!
Here's one filmed at Portland Castle in March 2012.
It's not starving, it's just feeding where the best food is!